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在经济日渐向好的大背景下，日本企业却在发愁。随着日本劳动力人口不断下降，很多公司都面临着日渐严峻的招工难题。如今，50%以上的日本中小企业招不到足够的毕业生。招聘成了决定很多公司生死存亡的关键点。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
demographic [ˌdemə'ɡræfɪk] adj. 人口的
cyclical ['saɪklɪkl] adj. 循环的，周期的
increment ['ɪŋkrəmənt] n. 增加，增加物
prestige [pre'stiːʒ] n. 威望，声望
cohort ['kəʊhɔːt] n. 一群；同生群
grind ['kəʊhɔːt] vi. 磨碎，用功
阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。
Every year, Mitsuhiro Wada has to recruit up to 900 new graduates in a country with an ultra-low unemployment rate of 2.8 per cent and a declining pool of young people at university.
“The market is very tough. There's a huge amount of competition,” says Mr Wada, head of recruitment at Daiwa House, one of Japan's biggest construction companies and a leading hirer of graduates. “It's even tougher than it was in 2007 or 2008.”
After five years of economic stimulus under prime minister Shinzo Abe, and with the working age population in steep demographic decline, Japan's big companies are engaged in a ferocious contest for talent.
Given that lifetime employment is still the norm for many graduates, failure to hire new blood can doom even established corporations to long-term decline, as they will struggle to bring in good staff who are at later stages of their career.
“The construction industry is cyclical and there were periods when recruitment was limited,” says Mr WadA.“As a result, we have relatively few staff in their 30s and we want to maintain balance.” The outlook for Japan's construction sector has improved since Tokyo won its bid to host the Olympic Games in 2020. Daiwa House is targeting rapid growth in sales and has recruitment targets to match. “We intend to be a winner and see the opportunity to expand market share,” Mr Wada says.
Hiring in Japan is still dominated by the annual graduation season, with companies following a set of voluntary rules that govern when they can interview and make offers. Once a graduate joins, they will enjoy steady progression and annual pay increments until they reach a fixed retirement age — normally 60, although this is rising.
While the country's broader labour market is booming, with the overall jobs-to-applicants ratio at its highest level since the mid-1970s, the ratio for graduates is still below its 2007-08 peak and well below the levels of the 1980s bubble economy.
That is partly because companies have grown more disciplined about hiring through the economic cycle, says Akihito Toda, chief analyst at the Recruit Works Institute, a research group. “Recently the pattern has been not to boost hiring so much because the economy has got better,” he says.
That, though, hides a gulf between prestige recruiters such as government, automakers and the big banks on one hand versus less popular sectors such as retail, social care and construction on the other.
“Those that can hire easily don't see recruitment as a big issue. On the other hand, companies that are already struggling aren't thinking ahead, they're trying to compete right now,” says Mr Toda.
Smaller companies face a particular struggle. “According to our survey this year, more than 50 per cent of small and medium-sized companies couldn't recruit the number of graduates they wanted,” says Tomonori Sugisaki at the Japan Chamber of Commerce.
Companies are responding in a variety of ways but not, in general, by raising pay. Since Japanese graduates expect a job for life, the starting salary is not very salient; they choose based on the perceived stability, reputation and comfort of an employer.
At Daiwa House, Mr Wada is trying to support a greater diversity of working styles, including making life easier for working mothers. It is also dropping a traditional Japanese requirement: that the employee move to wherever the employer assigns them. “We've started a system where you can designate a region in which you want to work,” he says. “We're trying to provide a custom-made way of working for new staff.”
One thing Japanese companies have not yet done, apart from a very few globalised manufacturers, is look abroaD.Even though Daiwa House's overseas business is growing fast, “at present, we still just think in terms of recruitment in Japan,” says Mr Wada.
The outlook for recruitment only becomes harder. From next year, the number of students entering Japanese universities will start to fall steadily, as the last demographic echoes of the baby boomers fade away. From 2022, those smaller classes will start to graduate.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
A.one of Japan's biggest real estate firms.
B.Japan's biggest construction company.
C.the main beneficiary of 2020 Olympic Games.
D.a leading recruiter of graduates in Japan.
答案 (1)
A.Japan's overall jobs-to-applicants ratio at its highest level in history.
B.Construction companies are among the most popular recruiters in Japan.
C.Over half of small and medium-sized firms couldn't recruit enough graduates.
D.Once a graduate joins a company, they are not allowed to resign before age 60.
答案 (2)
A.The company is targeting rapid growth in sales.
B.Working age population in Japan has been declining rapidly.
C.Hiring in Japan is dominated by the annual graduation season.
D.Lifetime employment makes it difficult to hire experienced talent.
答案 (3)
A.provide salient starting salary as well as stability to new graduates.
B.encourage more female graduates to join the construction industry.
C.mindfully balance the diversity of working styles in the company.
D.learn to be more disciplined about hiring through economic cycle.
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：D.a leading recruiter of graduates in Japan.解释：大和建筑公司是日本最大的建筑公司之一，也是毕业生主要的招聘公司之一。
(2) 答案：C.Over half of small and medium-sized firms couldn't recruit enough graduates.解释：“根据我们今年的调查，超过50%的中小型企业招聘的毕业生数量未达预期”。
(3) 答案：C.Hiring in Japan is dominated by the annual graduation season.解释：日本的工作年龄人口急剧下降。大和建筑公司的目标是快速提高销售额，因此必须招聘到足够的人手。
(4) 答案：C.mindfully balance the diversity of working styles in the company.解释：在大和建筑公司，和田先生努力支持员工们多样化的工作方式，包括为职场妈妈提供更加便利的条件。